Book Review: Grow a Sustainable Diet: Planning and Growing to Feed Ourselves and the Earth

The book, Grow a Sustainable Diet, is filled with in-depth information on planning and growing a garden that will not only provide food for the whole year but will also increase soil viability. Author Cindy Conner brings both research and personal experience to the table as she talks about living a sustainable lifestyle.

The beginning of the book discusses planning out a space for a garden, what different set ups the author has used and why. Through hand drawn maps and diagrams the reader can see how Cindy's garden has changed over the years as she gained experience.

There are a ton of worksheets in the book to help both beginners and veterans optimize their space and yield. There's even a chart to track the temperature and rainfall each year so the gardener can better plan their planting and harvesting.

The most interesting part for me was the discussion on cover crops and ways to boost the nutrients in the soil without buying fertilizer. I tend to have trouble keeping house plants alive so this section was kind of fascinating to me.

Grow a Sustainable Diet is definitely geared towards people with a decent amount of land and at least a little gardening experience. Not to say that beginners won't benefit from it, but the amount of information is a bit overwhelming.

While this book isn't very relevant to my current situation, I live in an apartment, I plan on hanging onto it for when I am able to start my own garden.

I received a digital copy of this book through NetGalley and New Society Publishers in exchange for an honest review.

This book comes out on April 15th 2014